WVU Today

WVU Athletic Director Shane Lyons issued the following statement Wednesday, Jan. 2: "I want to thank Coach Holgorsen for his eight years at West Virginia. We wish him and his family all the best at the University of Houston. Our national search for his replacement has already begun, and I know it will be a successful one." Read the full statement...

Men's basketball coach Bob Huggins is on the ballot for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame for the Class of 2019. The late Fred Schaus, former WVU basketball coach and athletic director, also made the list.

Jerrica “Ashley” Fox has been awarded a 2019 Thomas R. Pickering Graduate Fellowship to prepare for a career in the U.S. Foreign Service. Fox is the first West Virginia University alumna to win a Pickering Fellowship in at least a decade.

Fox graduated from WVU in 2013 with two bachelor’s degrees in political science and international studies, with minors in English and philosophy. During her time at the University, she interned at the U.S. Consulate General Amsterdam and the West Virginia House of Delegates and represented WVU as a delegate to The European International Model United Nations Conference in The Hague.

During the holidays, I am constantly reminded that we share a common purpose — to transform lives in our state and around the world. Sometimes that transformation starts small, with a smile, a kind word or a moment of compassion on our own campuses.

But it is often the smallest acts that snowball into the greatest movements.

This year, we are celebrating these little acts with a series of Helping the Holidays surprise videos that show how willing and eager our University family is to lend a helping hand to anyone — from a trapped Buzz Lightyear to a reindeer with a missing nose to a student who has gotten a little too tangled up in the decorating spirit.

Helping each other reflects the heart of our West Virginia University mission. And as we head into this season of hope and light, I am grateful for the many ways in which you help our University shine. I wish each of you the merriest and joyous of holidays.

West Virginia University continues to rank among the nation’s elite research institutions as reflected in the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. 

Carnegie released its every-three-year assessment this week, and WVU continues to be rated as an R1, or very high research activity, institution, the most elite category for research-focused schools, alongside such institutions as Harvard, Yale, Columbia and Johns Hopkins. Only 120 of the nation’s 4,500 colleges and universities attain this ranking. 

After more than 40 years of experience in higher education leadership within the WVU system, Gerald Lang will retire as West Virginia University Institute of Technology’s interim campus president, effective Jan. 1. 

Joan Neff, who has been serving as campus provost at WVU Tech since May, will step into the role of interim president. 

Fuel makes an engine run, and two gifts from Huntington Bank will help provide fuel for the new Startup Engine business accelerator at the West Virginia University John Chambers College of Business and Economics. 

Huntington has committed $2 million to the Startup Engine, including a $500,000 charitable grant through the WVU Foundation for the operation of the business accelerator and the provision of $1.5 million for a venture capital fund managed through Mountain State Capital on behalf of the accelerator program. 

The world’s forests are on a fast food diet of carbon dioxide, which is currently causing them to grow faster. But a researcher at West Virginia University, along with an international team of scientists, finds evidence suggesting that forest growth may soon peak as the trees deplete nitrogen in the soil over longer growing seasons.

West Virginia’s wildlands are a “canary in the coal mine for climate change” because of the forests’ biodiversity, which, along with rich soils and abundant rainfall, make them among the strongest forests globally, according to Brenden McNeil, an associate professor of geography at WVU’s Eberly College of Arts and Sciences. The state’s forests have been resilient to a barrage of logging and acid rain in the 19th and 20th centuries but are now exhibiting symptoms of declining health because of climate change. 

West Virginia University students who walked across the commencement stage Saturday (Dec. 15) may feel the world they’re entering is uncertain, but the sure thing in their lives is that their Morgantown experience has changed them. 

It’s their turn, WVU President Gordon Gee told them. 

A clarification and tightening of West Virginia University’s tobacco-free campus rules was approved for comment Friday by the Board of Governors.

The move is part of an ongoing revision of University governance stemming from the state Legislature’s adoption last year of laws permitting more independence from the state Higher Education Policy Commission.

Obstetricians and midwives often warn new mothers about postpartum depression. They might mention what symptoms women should look out for—such as crying spells or extreme irritability—and where they can turn for help. But people who have strokes may not learn that they, too, are at risk for depression. 

Post-stroke depression stems from the cardiovascular changes in the brain that lead to a stroke in the first place. It’s a type of depression that scientists are just now starting to probe. At the West Virginia University School of Medicine, a team of researchers is taking a bench-to-bedside look at whether magnetic fields can help treat this unexplored mood disorder. 

An unprecedented two scholars from West Virginia University have received the top fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Katherine Aaslestad and Tamba M’bayo, both professors in the Department of History, will each receive $60,000 for the 2019-2020 academic year to conduct research for their respective book projects.

Do you know about the John F. Kennedy Memorial in Star City? Did you know the large Coca-Cola mural on a High Street building is a restoration originally painted in 1953?

These sites are just two of the 44 local attractions detailed in the new Morgantown Public Art Guide, a collaborative initiative among West Virginia University Libraries,

The WVU Humanities Center has been awarded a grant from the West Virginia Humanities Council to support its 2018-2019 Quality of Life Speaker Series.  

“We are fortunate to have an active Humanities Council dedicated to supporting the humanities practitioners in our communities,” said Provost Joyce McConnell. “I’m delighted that the Council has recognized the important contribution that our Humanities Center is making to improving the quality of life in the state and moving West Virginia forward.”

West Virginia University is joining with scores of universities in a national initiative to increase college access, close the achievement gap and significantly produce more degrees by 2025. 

“Powered by Publics” is an initiative of the Association of Land-Grant and Public Universities and involves 130 schools, gathered into 16 different clusters around regions, size and/or mission. 

Across the country, special commissions remove barriers to justice for low-income and disadvantaged people by working with courts, the bar, and legal aid organizations. 

The West Virginia University College of Law is now home to the state’s Access to Justice Commission. Only two commissions in the country are administered by law schools. 

Fans following the West Virginia University football team to the Camping World Bowl in Orlando are encouraged to join fellow Mountaineers at fan events planned Thursday, Dec. 27, and Friday, Dec. 28.

Thursday, December 27

After two phases of competition, 15 teams of college entrepreneurs have advanced to the finals of the 13th annual West Virginia Statewide Collegiate Business Plan Competition. The 15 finalists hail from five colleges and universities in West Virginia, as the teams try to capture a grand prize of $10,000 in each of three categories of competition.

The competition categories include STEM, Lifestyle & Innovation, and Hospitality & Tourism. Collegiate teams from Blue Ridge Community and Technical College, Marshall University, Shepherd University, University of Charleston and West Virginia University have secured finalist positions, and will receive $1,000 to help further develop their business idea in the final phase. A winter workshop designed to develop business ideas will be held for the teams in February, with the three winners to be announced in April.

West Virginia University issued this statement on the passing of Marvin Wotring, who has made every rifle carried by the school’s Mountaineer Mascot since 1977:

Mountaineers everywhere mourn the Dec. 2 passing of Marvin Wotring, who created every rifle carried by West Virginia University’s Mountaineer Mascot since 1977.

A new Veteran and Military Family Support Headquarters underscores West Virginia University’s commitment to those who have served our country.

WVU President Gordon Gee and the WVU Center for Veteran, Military and Family Programs hosted a grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new center Friday, Dec. 7 at the Mountainlair .